By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 4 Jan: Under the Udan Scheme, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Premchand Aggarwal and Cabinet Minister Prakash Pant jointly flagged off the Dehradun to Pantnagar air service at the Jolly Grant Airport, here, on Friday. This service is expected to prove very important for connectivity between Garhwal and Kumaon.
The Chief Minister said that, along with Jolly Grant Airport, the airstrips at Pantnagar, Chinyalisaur, Naini-Saini, Gauchar and Chaukhutia would be expanded. Being a border state and from the strategic point of view special emphasis is being laid on the expansion of airstrips.
The Chief Minister also expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this service.
Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated the programme by lighting the ceremonial lamp and held discussions with Air India, CMD, Pradeep Singh Kharola and other officials. Rawat handed over air ticket to the passengers and conveyed his best wishes.
CMD Kharola said that Air India’s wholly-owned subsidiary company, Alliance Air, under the Indian Government’s mission “Connecting India” Udan Scheme for improvement in regional connectivity, the air flight from Dehradun to Pantnagar and vice-versa had been started. With the start of this flight, the long-standing demand had been fulfilled. Alliance Air has started operating an ATR 42 Aeroplane on the Pantnagar-Dehradun-Pantnagar route. The seat capacity of the ATR Aeroplane is 42. Flight number 91-823 will depart from Pantnagar on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 13.40 hours and will arrive in Dehradun at 14.40 hours. The return flight will depart from Dehradun at 15.05 hours on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday and will arrive at Pantnagar at 15.55 hours. The fare (all inclusive) for Dehradun/Pantnagar Sector is Rs 1590. Alliance Air also has a direct flight from Pantnagar to New Delhi. With this flight, the passengers traveling between these cities will get utmost comfort and there will be significant reduction in travel time.
Also present on the occasion were Secretary Dilip Jawalkar, Additional Secretary R Rajesh Kumar, Director, Jolly Grant Airport, Vinod Sharma, etc.
